Hey guys. I need to know what is the best program for capturing stuff of your miniDV tape. Right now im using Movie Maker 2 in Windows but I dont know what setting is best. I want to get it onto my PC at the best possible quality available. All help is greatly appreciated.

If your using MovieMaker 2 choose the DV setting. I think it says something like best quality for output to tape or something like that.

DV is fully digital so there is no best setting (just make sure you
are capturing in DV). In fact, there are no settings. Just capture
away. The only difference between programs is ease of use etc.

Most people here use the capture programs that came with their
edit software. Popular edit packages are Sony Vegas, Adobe
Premiere, AVID for the PC and Final Cut Pro for the Mac. All of
these come with their own capture "utility".

In MovieMaker 2 your able to capture via the DV device to windows media format at different bitrates, so some of the formats are captured in half resolution that wouldn't look as good when put back out to tape. The best setting for full frame video back out to tape is digital for (DV-AVI), according to the capture settings offered from the program.

I use scenalyzer (www.scenalyzer.com). It breaks each scene into a seperate file. Much better than getting a 60 minute file and trying to break it down yourself. Costs about $40.